Picture Your Home Sold – Home Selling Tips

Are you going to be selling your home in the near future? If so, you’ve come to the right place!

Over the past several years we’ve highlighted the best real estate blogs of the year in one article. Instead of doing one MEGA post, this year we’re publishing a series of “best of” blog articles, split into several different categories.

Below you’re going to find brief recaps of the best home selling blogs from the past 12 months from some of the best real estate bloggers in the world! You’ll find information pertaining on selling a home with pets to improving your winter curb appeal.

All of these articles can be extremely helpful when the time comes to sell your home! If you find any of these articles helpful, please consider sharing them and also this recap of the best home selling blogs from 2017!

Tips For Selling A Condo

If you’re the owner of a condo and you’re thinking about selling it, you need to first realize there are some major differences between selling a single family residence and a condominium.

In this article from Rochester Real Estate Blog, you’re going to be find the best tips for selling a condo! Insider condo selling tips such as hiring a REALTOR with experience selling condominiums and knowing how to prepare your condo for sale are just a couple of the important topics discussed in this article.

If you’re unsure about how to sell your condo, this article is a must read! By following these helpful tips for selling a condo, you’ll greatly improve the chances your experience is successful and profitable as well.

Expert Listing Agents Thoughts On Zillow’s Estimates

I reached out to Bill Gassett, a Real Estate agent in Southborough Mass who has been selling homes for over thirty years, to get some of his best advice. Bill provided me with some great insight on a topic many real estate agents can appreciate – Zillow estimates! Here is what Bill had to say.

“Thanks again for the opportunity Kyle to share my expertise with those who follow your blog. As you know Zillow estimates of home value have become the bane of so many real estate agents. One of my best home selling tips of course is to price your home correctly from day one! Unfortunately, many sellers look at the Zillow estimate and place stock in it! We all want to believe our homes are worth more than what the neighbor sold theirs for. Sometimes Zillow will validate what sellers believe their home should be worth.

Algorithms are not accurate. If only valuing property was that easy. Buyers and sellers wouldn’t need to do anything but look at Zillow. That my friends is foolish. Zillow places these Zestimates of value on millions of homes across the country. Guess how many Zillow actually visits? If you guessed none you would be correct! You could drop $50,000 in improvements in your home tomorrow and Zillow wouldn’t know you did a thing.

Zillow’s estimates of value rely heavily on information that may not even be correct. For example, the town data is often incorrect yet Zillow uses this information. Assessed values are also highly influential in their algorithm as well. Most people with any kind of understanding of market values realizes that there is very little correlation with assessed value and market value.

When selling your home you should always do one of two things. Either hire an appraiser to evaluate your market value or hire a skilled local real estate agent. It is important to check the agent’s qualifications of pricing accurately. Many agents list homes and have numerous price reductions before their properties get sold. This is not what you want. Homes listed correctly from day one fetch more money than those who have been reduced.”

Curb Appeal In The Winter

There is a wonderful video provided by Luke Skar that explains to home sellers the value of improving curb appeal in the winter. In this video, Luke uses a story to explore some of the ways that a buyer can focus their efforts in order to make their home more appealing to buyers.

We all know that the winter months can be dark and dreary. With shorter days and the threat of a gray dreary sky, it is no wonder so many people feel gloomy and depressed. That is why it is important for home sellers to make their property look bright, colorful and inviting. Luke points out that the quickest way to do this is to work on the front entrance along with the walkways, driveways and gate.

By cleaning up and adding color to the front entrance, the home will instantly have a more inviting appearance. Cleaning up the driveway by removing leaves or snow will give the home a feel that the owner is serious about taking care of the property.

The next major point is to clear away any low hanging branches and trim the bushes. Removing the branches will give potential buyers a better view of the home from the road. Trimming the bushes, especially in the winter, will make the place look tidy and neat compared to other homes on the market.

The final point Luke makes in the video is going through the home and deep cleaning all the rooms. Extra attention should be given to the floors, baseboards, and windows. Sparkly windows and clean baseboards have been shown to impress buyers and make them feel comfortable about buying the home.

With these tips from Luke, potential sellers can improve the look of their home and hopefully attract a buyer much sooner than they originally thought possible.

The 3 Critical P’s When Selling Your Home

It’s easy to get overwhelmed with information and advice from all directions as to the things you need to do when selling your home. You read an article that details the 27 Must-Do Items. Selling your home is not rocket science. Do the fundamentals and do them well and your home should do really well too.

Everything else is just cherries on top! Even better, your Realtor will take care of two of them for you. However, just because it’s only 3 items doesn’t mean you won’t be working your tail off getting the home ready for market.

Preparation covers a lot of different activates including decluttering your home, working on the landscaping and that all important curb appeal, painting touch ups or full paint jobs or putting in new carpets if needed.

Also, your home might need to be professionally staged if it will be vacant while on the market. The more time you give yourself for the preparation stage of the process the less sleepless night you will have. Start planning a minimum of 6 months ahead.

All your hard work preparing your home will go to waste if your agent doesn’t set the price of your home correctly. Getting the pricing right is CRITICAL! Price it too high and you might sit on the market. Price it too low and you might end up leaving a bunch of money on the table.

The final P is for professional photography. Ninety percent of buyers start their home search online and your home has only a few seconds to hook their attentions. Photos of your home taken by a professional photographer, specifically a real estate photographer is really important. Great photos will sell your home. Cheap agent iPhone photos will lose you money, Make sure you hire a Realtor who hires a photographer.

Focus on the 3 P’s when selling your home and you will reap the benefits at closing.

Selling A Home Where Pets Live

Sharon Paxson has written an article about selling a home with pets and having a pet can be detrimental to selling a home. Dogs, cats, and birds can leave behind a mess which can potentially turn off a buyer. Sharon explains that just because the homeowner loves their pet, not everyone does, and some buyers are fearful of animals which can be detrimental when trying to sell your home.

Pets can also become territorial during showings, as it is a disruption to their daily life as well.

Sharon offers recommendations on what to do to prepare to sell your home with pets including a deep cleaning of the home, replace HVAC filters, repair cosmetic defects which may have been caused by having pets. It is also important to deep clean or replace the carpet. Be aware that having pets can leave behind odors, so having the home as clean as possible will reduce that, and diffusing a very neutral essential oil may help purify the air.

Other recommendations including picking up dog or cat bowls and water bowls. Minimize signs that a pet exists in the house, so removing photos of them also. Remove other pet items may include their bedding, crates, bowls, toys, water bowls, and litter box. If you have a bird, then keep the cage clean and the floor swept under the cage.

Don’t forget the outside of the home too if you have pets. clean up the dog yard outside and that there are no remnants from a dog using the outdoors as a bathroom. If you have lawn, and it is damaged or burned from a dog, then have your landscaper re-seed. And be sure to completely clean up after a pet outside, because you would not want a buyer to “step” on something that was missed!

For showings and presentation of the home, it is ideal to take the pets out of the house, if they cannot stay with a relative or friend, then take them for a walk.

Lastly, think about your pet and you want to make the experience as stress free as possible for the pet too, because it is their home too!

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Published by Alex Williams

In the parable of Alex Williams he became a Theoretical Theorist at a early age. He states; I'm just a seeker but also a finder seeking to assist other seekers for what you seek is causing you to seek.
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